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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 19th Aug 2016 at 2:01 PM Last edited by ajs88 : 19th Aug 2016 at 5:46 PM.
Default The Aristocratic Challenge
Hi, I've been playing around this idea for a while and it's been both fun and challenging. I think I've got the rules and scoring nailed but please let me know what you think, am open to ideas.

The Aristocratic Challenge

The Aristocratic Challenge is the management and preservation of an expensive estate along with the occupying families lineage and reputation. Similar to the Legacy Challenge but in reverse the Aristocratic Challenge starts with great wealth accumulated from past glories and the challenge is to preserve as much of it as possible until the death of the 10th Lord or total bankruptcy while navigating the strict and stifling rules of social conduct.

You start with a neighbourhood containing three Manor Houses, five Country Houses, ten Cottages and an empty National Trust museum and gallery. Each of the houses are occupied by a family of three generations; aristocracy in the Manor Houses, gentry in the Country Houses and commoners in the Cottages.

You may select one of the three Manor Houses for your Aristocratic Challenge. The other houses and families may be played during the challenge to provide friends, prospective spouses, story lines and just for fun. The other aristocratic families must abide by the same rules but do not collect points, unless you wish to play challenges will all three families at the same time. The other families are free to live their lives including selling and buying properties and attaining or losing rank with them. There are just three 'new money' families waiting to move onto the estate. Once the challenge starts you cannot create any new sims.

Rules

1. The estate, its contents and funds are held by the Lord, the oldest male in the family, who is not permitted to work and has absolute free will*
2. The estate (lot and building) cannot be sold and the no element of it can be removed or altered although additions can be made
3. The Ladies are the Lord's wife and his mother if alive, they are not permitted to work and have absolute free will*
4. The heir is the 'next in line' and is the eldest born male child of the Lord, the eldest male child's eldest surviving son if deceased, the next born son or his eldest surviving son and so on or else the eldest surviving son of the eldest daughter. He must stay on the estate or moved onto the estate from another lot on becoming heir after being appropriately aged up and accompanied by his parents if still a minor.
5. The spare is the 'next in line' after the heir and may live on or off the estate until he becomes heir.
6. On the Lord's death the heir becomes Lord and his wife becomes a Lady, the spare becomes heir and the late Lord's wife may retain her title and right to remain on the estate unless she re-marries.
7. On the Lord's death the estate must pay inheritance tax ** or be seized ***
8. Widowed ladies and daughters must leave the estate and join their husbands families on their wedding day unless there is no heir on the estate in which case a daughter of child bearing age may remain with her husband.
9. Upon leaving the house no occupant can take any portion of the estate funds or items from the estate with them.
10. Adopted and illegitimate children may not inherit and or produce heirs
11. If the family have absolutely no funds left and every item has been sold, donated or seized then they may heroically starve and end the challenge through death or declare bankruptcy ending the challenge but retaining their lives ****
12. If their is no heir upon the death of the Lord then all occupants must relinquish the house and all of its original contents except for 20,000 to a long lost second cousin once removed ending the challenge but starting a new one.

* Characters with free will can not be directly controlled by yourself, you can only interact with them through other characters eg. 'ask to join'

** Since the families have already been brought to brink of ruin through inheritance tax this may be made in lieu by donating items to the value of 5,000 to the local National Trust gallery and museum on the death of each Lord.

*** Seizure will be made by the National Trust who allow the families to continue to live on the estate but on the condition that no changes are made, nothing is sold and that half of the house and all of its grounds are made open to the public (open for business only)

**** On declaring bankruptcy the family must move out of the estate which is sold. They may take the remaining value of the lot in funds but only 20,000 if the estate was under seizure prior to bankruptcy.

Points

+10,000
The family starving to death rather then declare bankruptcy

+1,000 points
The Lord dying and the estate being successfully passed down

+500 points
The Lord or heir producing his first born son

+250 points
The Lord or heir producing a spare son
Each daughter matching with aristocracy
Each son reaching the top of the military or politics careers

+50 points
Each son graduating from private or military school
Each son entering the military or politics careers
Each daughter matching with gentry

+10 points
Each family member mastering the creative skill set
Each family member mastering the logic skill set
Each aristocratic friend of the family

+/- 0 points
Each item of the estates contents being donated to the local gallery and museum

-10,000 points
The estate being seized

-1000 points
Each item of the estates content being lost to repossession

-500 points
Each item of the estates content being sold

-250 points
Each son or daughter taking a common job eg. criminal, business, law enforcement or slacker
Each illegitimate child born in the house
Each item of the estates content being lost to fire or theft
Each son or daughter matching with a commoner or townie

-50 points
Each generation without staff
* Not having a maid and gardener employed for the entire duration between Lord's deaths and a nanny when there is a child in the house

-10 points
Each public scandal
* Family member being caught outside of the estate's gates in their underwear, having a breakdown, begging, fighting, copulating or urinating.
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Test Subject
#2 Old 20th Aug 2016 at 8:24 AM
Looks great! I'd love to try it but I have a question: how much money do you start with?

Do you have any ideas for expanding it to include the other classes as well with scoring for them? I love those kinds of challenges Excited to give this one a go.
Test Subject
#3 Old 20th Aug 2016 at 6:24 PM
This looks interesting. If I didn't have 3 other challenges going on right now, I would try it.
Forum Resident
#4 Old 20th Aug 2016 at 6:39 PM
Are there other ways for the aristocracy to make money? Can they buy a small plot of land for farming and have a servant care for it? Can they have the farm on the edge of their estate? Are they allowed to paint? Or give financial advice?

The game just gives so many sneaky ways to make money without an actual job.

For my physical health, I can't eat cheesecake everyday.
For my mental health, I imagine eating cheesecake everyday.
It's a delicate balance.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 23rd Aug 2016 at 8:47 PM
The families start with the value of the estate building and contents, can be as high as you like as this just leads to higher bills anyway, but either no or limited money. I'm currently building a neighbourhood with all of the houses and families but it's taking a long time and the more I build the more ideas I get. For example I'm filling my cottages with three generation families so they're challenge could be to save up enough money so that the younger generations can buy their own homes in the new housing development on the outskirts of the villages.

I think all of the sneaky ways to make money should be allowed, aristocrats are very resourceful after all. Using the open for business pack would defiantly extend the possibilities. But I do think not being allowed to control the L&L makes it much more challenging as it's up to the other family members to keep everything going.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 24th Aug 2016 at 1:39 PM
One way most aristocrats with land made their money (and some still do) is to have rent paid by their tenants to the trust.
So every household or tenant can have funds deducted with Monique's payment method, and thus saving the trust from collapsing.

Another side to this challenge would be for those who lost their property to the tax men would be to regain it through various means-and that does mean taking a job. In this day and age real aristos do not have the luxury of having a fixed income unless they were born into it, such as the Windsor family (IE, the Queen of England)..

But in case one does not want them to work, the aristo pixels can paint masterpieces, fashion pottery, or give advice on the computer, (if you have FT installed)...all without really 'working for a living.'

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Test Subject
#7 Old 3rd Sep 2019 at 1:59 AM
How much is the inheritance tax supposed to be again? You mention a 5K item can be "donated" instead of paying the tax, but not how much the tax is.
Lab Assistant
#8 Old 17th Oct 2019 at 12:41 AM
Is someone still running this challenge?
The impression I get is that the only way to win is to lose in bankruptcy or death?
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